8 GoodGymers got a full body workout by pulling down ivy from the walls around Queens Crescent, making it nicer for the local residents!

It was a lovely crisp evening and 8 goodgymers came running, cycling and walking to Queens Crescent to help out with some gardening tasks. It was brilliant to have Charlie and Emma with us from Exeter University Cool Runnings Society again! Welcome back to Exeter and to uni!

Queens Crescent is a lovely green area right in the city centre and for years it was very overgrown and there were big problems with antisocial behavior. The local residents got together and have worked super hard over the years to do it up so it can be enjoyed by everyone living in the area. Helping them out could not be a better task for our GoodGym group!

Our task was to pull down the ivy that was growing over the brick walls, dig up the roots and rake the ground bellow.

You would not believe the difference we made in just 1 hour!

It was absolutely brilliant to hear all the chatting and laughing going on whilst we were working, the sharing of lockdown stories, about returning to work/uni and a lot of remembering what we did this time last year. Time flew by, we worked so long it got dark outside and we had to bring out the winter-lights for the first time this autumn.

Such a good time and absolutely FANTASTIC work everyone! The task-owner was so pleased with how much we got done!

I hope you all had good walks, runs and bike rides home and I really hope I see you soon again! Take a look at the listing here

This weekend Exeter Phoenix kick-started Mental Health Awareness Week with Bloom, an online festival of Mental Health Awareness. We were super excited to be part of this with a GG fitness challenge, a talk about the GoodGym and some little tips on how to stay motivated when training at home!

There was a great collection of at-home-activity throughout the weekend and 20 GoodGymers took part in the GG Fitness session which consisted of some HIIT style cardio exercises, some toning exercises and some core work. It was fantastic to have Denise and Linda joining us for the first time! I really hope I get to meet you in person when things are back to normal and we can go out on our usual group runs again!

Training at home is not always so easy... A big cheer to Sarah who persevered with the training session even though she had to pause and sort out snacks for her kids multiple times. I think a lot of us know exactly what thats like! Lisa was quite exhausted after having been up multiple times in the night with the new addition in her house, a suuuuper cute puppy, but still made the session! Great stuff! Also, a huge cheer to Rosie who completed the training session 3 times! Brilliant effort!

A very special thank you to Lizzie who had made the spoken word poetry film about running that was added to the talk about the GoodGym!

Finally a very big shout out to the Phoenix who rather than canceling the Bloom weekend due to the Covid-19 adapted it so that it could take place online. Mental Health Awareness is more important than ever in these strange times and it was awesome that the Bloom went ahead. We totally loved being part of it!